"Is this the day? Is this the beginning or the end?...
'Why is it finally happening?' There is time only for fear, for the piercing
pain of panic. Do we pray? Or do we merely run now, and pray later? Will there
be a later? Or is this the day?"

To unite the warring nations of Earth a
group of scientists secretly create a "common enemy", an all powerful alien
monster to threaten the world. They hope that such a monster would unite all
nations to work together .

Robert Culp plays Alan - the unlucky
'volunteer' to become the Thetan alien.

After he starts the experimentation to
become Thetan his wife (Geraldine Brooks) announces that she is
pregnant.

Whilst the experiments continue, Alan's
wife is told that Alan was killed in a plane accident.

The experimentation starts to take effect
on Alan, as he starts to become dellusional.

After rampaging through the lab Alan
tries to phone his wife but is restrained before he can talk to her.

The final stages of the experimentation
are underway - at this stage Alan can only communicate through a vocal box and
gets confirmation from the scientist that what he is going through is for the
greater good. He is also assured that he has a good chance of success of
completing his mission - Once his rocket ship is built and his final
transformation complete, he is to take the ship and land it near the UN
congressional building, then go through and break into the UN talks.

Launching off from a secret location, the
Thetan ship is tracked by radar - however it crash lands off
course...

At first she is scared by the figure, but
when it collapses in front of her and points, she realises who it once
was...

The scientists rush to the laboratory to
find the creature dead and Alan's wife realising who it was. She asks them what
right they had to try and stage manage this event, and the price that Alan had
to pay...

Robert Culp gives one of his usual excellent
performances here as the self virtuous Alan, who is at first willing to be
transformed into the creature that will unite the nations but who then can only
think of his wife and their unborn child. Culp made several notable appearances
on "The Outer Limits",
including "Demon with a Glass Hand" as well as making notable guest appearances on shows like
"Rawhide" ("Incident at the Top of theWorld", one of the best episodes of
that series) and "Columbo". Along with Bill Cosby, Robert Culp starred in the successful
" I Spy" series in the 1960s, and co-starred in "Greatest
American Hero" with William Katt.

I have deliberately tried to avoid
showing pictures of the Thetan. The video release states that "The creature (a special effects masterpiece) was so frightening
some local TV stations blackened the screen during his appearance!" However, in my opinion the creature could quite happily appear on
children's television and I suspect that the producers of the show were also of
a similar opinion as the creature rarely makes a full screen appearance, instead
they make good use of the excellent camerawork of Conrad Hall and keep the
creature in the shadows as much as possible.

Although this is one of my most favourite
episodes of "The Outer Limits", it is not the one that scared me the most originally. That
honour falls to "A Feasibility Study" which really scared me as a child when I first saw it.

You can now buy this episode, along
with the rest of the first series on DVD: